Category Health/Medical

Antibodies against APOE (red) bind to amyloid plaques (blue) in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have found that the antibody can sweep away the damaging plaques, at least in mice, which could lead to a therapy for the devastating disease. Credit: Monica Xiong

Potential therapy removes APOE and plaques from brain. Amyloid beta plaques are a characteristic sign of Alzheimer’s disease. But nestled within the plaques are small amounts of another Alzheimer’s protein: APOE. Now, researchers have shown that an antibody not only targets APOE for removal but sweeps away plaques in mice. The findings could lead to a way to halt the brain damage triggered by amyloid plaques while the disease is still in its early stages, perhaps before symptoms appear...

A family of economical silver-based complexes show very promising results against a number of human cancers in laboratory tests, with very low toxicity in rat studies and minimal effects on healthy cells. One of these, UJ3, is as effective as the industry-standard drug Cisplatin in killing cancer cells in laboratory tests done on human esophageal cancer, breast cancer and melanoma. This matrix of light microscope images show a comparison of human esophageal cancer cells treated with UJ3 and Cisplatin. Credit: Dr Zelinda Engelbrecht, University of Johannesburg

A new family of potential silver-based anti-cancer drugs has been discovered by researchers in South Africa...

This graphical abstract depicts the effects of a 2-year calorie restriction (CR) trial in healthy, non-obese humans, which found evidence that prolonged CR enhances resting energy efficiency, resulting in decreased oxidative damage to tissues and organs. Credit: Redman et al./Cell Metabolism

One of the first studies to explore the effects of calorie restriction on humans showed that cutting caloric intake by 15% for 2 years slowed aging and metabolism and protected against age-related disease. The study, which will appear March 22 in the journal Cell Metabolism, found that calorie restriction decreased systemic oxidative stress, which has been tied to age-related neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as cancer, diabetes, and others.

“Restricting calo...

An MIT-led research team reversed age-related endurance loss in mice by treating them with a compound that promotes new blood vessel growth.

Activating proteins linked to longevity may help to increase endurance and combat frailty in the elderly. As we get older, our endurance declines, in part because our blood vessels lose some of their capacity to deliver oxygen and nutrients to muscle tissue. An MIT-led research team has now found that it can reverse this age-related endurance loss in mice by treating them with a compound that promotes new blood vessel growth. The compound, which re-activates longevity-linked proteins called sirtuins, promotes the growth of blood vessels and muscle, boosting the endurance of elderly mice by up to 80%.

If the findings translate to humans, this restorati...